{"id":25430,"date":"2023-08-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=25430"},"modified":"2023-08-31T06:40:59","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T06:40:59","slug":"afwerx-hosts-first-in-person-collider-event-since-covid-19-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=25430","title":{"rendered":"AFWERX hosts first in-person Collider event since COVID-19 pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

AUSTIN, Texas (AFNS) — \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

More than 20 industry partners attended the first in-person AFWERX<\/strong><\/a> Collider event in over three years at Fed Supernova in Austin. Colliders went virtual during the COVID-19 pandemic but the return of face-to-face interaction gave Air Force leaders the opportunity to share the same room with small businesses and entrepreneurs to spark interaction and unleash American ingenuity to solve warfighter problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of you may be wondering, how can I serve my country?\u201d said Col. Elliott Leigh<\/strong><\/a>, AFWERX director and chief commercialization officer for the Department of the Air Force. \u201cFor some of us, we put on a uniform. But all of you are audacious Americans with ideas and recognize that there is a way you can benefit your country. You’re going to hear about some of the problems in the Air Force. Go back and think about your value proposition and how your company can contribute to that and roll that into your proposal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colliders rely on government partners to come to AFWERX with their problems and they must align with the Air Force\u2019s seven Operational Imperatives<\/strong><\/a>. The Operational Imperatives are the critical operational capabilities and functions the DAF must invest in to protect the United States\u2019 ability to deter conflict and project power against pacing challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure that we’re getting access to the best that the private sector can offer for the Department of the Air Force,\u201d Leigh said. \u201cLet’s all be in this together. Think about what’s going on in the world and be ready to face the threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once the government problem set and Operational Imperative focus area is established, AFWERX is responsible for coordinating the event and inviting industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe scheduled this Collider during Fed Supernova because a lot of industry attends,\u201d said James Foutz, AFWERX Spark Collider program lead. \u201cThe companies invited to each Collider are selected through a Partnership Intermediary Agreement to ensure they are focused in the technology area proposed during the event.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem for this Collider was proposed by the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center<\/strong><\/a> and aligned with Operational Imperatives five, resilient basing, and seven, readiness to deploy and fight. AFIMSC\u2019s mission is to deliver globally integrated installation and mission support to enhance warfighter readiness and lethality.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur problems revolve around austere locations, installations at deployed locations, energy resiliency and security forces, just to name a few,\u201d said Dustin Dickens, AFIMSC innovation program manager. \u201cWhat sets Collider events apart from other industry engagements is AFWERX has a network of industry partners to connect and collaborate with our individual user sets to make the experience more appropriate to fit our functional gaps.\u201d<\/p>\n

The morning portion of the Collider featured presentations from Air Force leaders to industry attendees on the need to reduce the logistical footprint required to sustain operations in the future. The afternoon was an opportunity for industry to talk with those leaders about their technologies and possibly find solutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Colliders are great for making connections,\u201d said Sean Luangrath, an attendee and CEO of a portable solar generator small business. \u201cI attended a previous Collider and our technology solution resulted in an AFWERX phase two contract award. Today, I just had a conversation with Air Force leaders that are very interested in another one of our technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foutz said the goal moving forward is to have in-person Colliders every quarter while also providing a virtual option to maximize attendance. He said Air Force organizations can reach out with their problems via www.afwerx.com or contact your local spark cell or innovation lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease get in touch with AFWERX and we can set up an event like this to support whatever problem areas you are trying to get after.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas (AFNS) — \u00a0 More than 20 industry partners attended the first in-person AFWERX Collider event in over three years at Fed Supernova in Austin. Colliders went virtual during the COVID-19 pandemic but the return of face-to-face interaction gave Air Force leaders the opportunity to share the same room with small businesses and entrepreneurs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25430"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25433,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25430\/revisions\/25433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}